Hope
by Gracie Holmes
Summary: Common Ground tag. John Sheppard's thoughts about being left behind. GW Whump Challenge Entry.


_Common Ground tag. Written for GateWorld's John Sheppard Whump Thread Challenge #12.  
>Prompt: Write a fic that shows John's feelings about being abandonedleft behind._

_Thanks to the wonderful **CheekyBeckett** for beta-ing this piece. _

**Hope by GraceW**

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><p>"<em>Yeah. I've got friends and they're gonna come for me."<br>__"No. Our people don't leave each other behind. That's three things you've learned." ~John Sheppard, Common Ground_

John Sheppard had been left behind. Not intentionally of course, but nevertheless he had been left behind. Harpooned. Snatched by a merciless enemy. Fed twice to a starving Wraith, who'd like nothing better than to turn him into a shriveled husk. This is definitely not the way he had wanted to spend his day. Frustration continued to build up in him. Frustration at Kolya and his Wraith, frustration at Elizabeth and his team, and even more so frustration at himself for being captured in the first place.

Even so, he still held up a hope that Elizabeth would be able to send a team to rescue him. Even through the second feeding, it was a reasonable hope. Rodney would find the gate address to where they took him. Then Ronon would come bursting in the door guns blazing, leading a team of Marines to his rescue. Carson would figure out how to help him after they returned. He had faith in his team, but he was beginning to lose that faith as surely as he was losing years to the Wraith.

Hope, faith in his team. That was his tiny light in the dark cell of this rogue Genii dungeon. The darkness, of the room and the situation, almost chocked him. Even though he had been caged next to his executioner, he still held the hope that he would make it back home, to Atlantis. Hearing the voices of Elizabeth and Rodney had increased that hope, knowing that even while they watched the video, there were dozens of people working to find him. Hope that his team, his family, would come for him. They had always come through for him in the past, so it was not a false hope.

They would find him, they just had too. It was simply a waiting game. He felt and looked like he was way over 60 years old, so it wouldn't exactly be a happy ending, but it would be better than any alternatives he could think of. Though, now that he thought about it, he could probably kiss his surfing career goodbye.

In spite of the hope, there still was doubt in the back of his mind, an uncertainty. What if they didn't come? What if they were too late? He had given orders. He knew Elizabeth would not give into this form of terrorism and surrender Ladon Radim. The Wraith would feed, and nothing would be left of John except a set of dog tags on a withered skeleton. His death wouldn't stop Kolya from continuing his thirst for power or hurting more people. The rogue Genii commander would find Radim eventually, and John's death would have been for nothing.

As he sat on the hard floor, back pressed against the wall, loneliness washed over him like a wave. His only company was a starving Wraith. Alone, abandoned by his team and left at the mercy of his Pegasus nemesis. No, he hadn't been abandoned, they would come for him. He just hoped that they came before it was too late. Strange, he thought, loneliness was not an emotion that he had experience in quite a long time. When he was stationed in Antarctica, he had loved the solitude. It was a place of open skies, and a freedom that he had relished. But in Atlantis, he had forged a team, a family even. Families don't let family members get fed to the Wraith. Frustration arose again as he winced at the continuous pain in his aged joints and the almost overwhelming headache.

He pushed the doubts back into the far reaches of his mind. He had to maintain the hope that this would end, he would not be left behind. New determination filled him, a hope and certainty in himself. He would get out one way or another. If he had to break down the walls himself or had to forge an alliance with a Wraith, he would do it. His team had not abandoned him, but they couldn't do anything to help either. The choices were clear, escape or die.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading! Please Review! :)<em>

_~Grace :) _


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